One superstar is returning to where it all started with the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend but for another, his journey should be a focus for fans too.
The stage is set for a very emotional and nostalgic weekend at Busch Stadium starting on Friday when for the first time in eight years, the Los Angeles Angels come to town to play the St. Louis Cardinals for a three-game series.
Most fans know that this is, of course, the first time that Albert Pujols will be playing in St. Louis since he left and while that is going to be emotional for any fan who has a memory lasting more than eight years, as fans we shouldn’t miss out on the other superstar coming to town.
Mike Trout is just inhuman.
In his career, he has accrued 69.2 WAR over his 9 seasons, and factor in that his debut season was just 123 AB’s and the fact that we are still in June and you can see that the 27-year-old has been absolutely unreal.
Mike Trout's career WAR is 69.0. He's tied with Ty Cobb for the most WAR by a player through age-27 https://t.co/c29rEaApbs pic.twitter.com/RROMkLAa1p
— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) June 18, 2019
He is likely going to go down as one of the top players ever, and probably better than Pujols as Trout will likely pass Pujols’ 73.8 WAR through his first nine seasons by the end of the year. Pujols’ ninth year was also his age 29 season, not his age 27, so that may disqualify Albert from the argument alone.
The craziest thing about Trout is that he just keeps getting better as he enters his prime. So far this year, he has already accrued a 5.0 WAR, 22 homers, .299 BA, and 56 RBI’s.
Wednesday night, for instance, he went a measly 3-6 with seven RBI’s and two homers.
With his 2nd HR of the night, @MikeTrout now has 10 HR in his last 19 games.
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) June 20, 2019
His current OPS of 1.118 would be the highest mark of his career. pic.twitter.com/P3p8LN882v
With the Cardinals being in the NL, we don’t get to see Trout often, and if I haven’t proven to you yet just how good Trout is, I’m not sure what would. What I recommend is soaking this weekend in as much as you can.
I hope Trout doesn’t demolish the Cardinals all weekend, but if he does, just know that it’s like Ty Cobb destroying the ball so don’t be too upset. Just enjoy Albert coming back and the quiet superstardom of Mike Trout. That’s all I ask.
There will be tears at the Ballpark for sure and the teams might just want to plan for a rain-like delay to wait for Albert’s standing ovation to stop, but enjoy Trout and hopefully, the Cardinals can find a way to take a game or two from the Angels.